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Nor to this evanescent speck of earth, Poorly confin'd, the radiant tracts on high Are her exalted range, intent to gaze Creation thro', and, from that full complex Of never-ending wonders, to conceive

1785

1790

Of the fole Being right, who spoke the word,
And Nature mov'd complete. With inward view
Tence on th' ideal kingdom fwift she turns
Her eye, and inftant, at her powerful glance,
Th' obedient phantoms vanish or appear,
Compound, divide, and into order shift,
Each to his rank, from plain perception up
To the fair forms of Fancy's fleeting train;
To reafon then, deducing truth from truth,
And notion quite abftract, where firft begins 1795
The world of fpirits, action all, and life
Unfettered. and unmixt. But here the cloud,
So wills eternal Providence, fits deep:
Enough for us to know that this dark state,
In wayward paffions loft and vain pursuits,
This infancy of being, cannot prove
The final issue of the works of God,

By boundless love and perfect wisdom form❜d,
And ever rifing with the rifing mind.

1800

THE SEASONS.

THE fubject propofed.

AUTUMN.

The Argument.

Addreffed to Mr. Onflow. A profpe&t of the fields ready for harvest. Reflections in praife of industry, raised by that view. Reaping. A Tale relative to it. A harveft-form. Shooting and hunting, their barharity. A ludicious account of fox-hunting. A view of an orchard. Wall-fruit. A vineyard. A defcription of fogs frequent in the latter part of Autumn; whence a digreffion, inquiring into the rife of fountains and rivers. Birds of feafon confidered, that now fhift their habitation. The prodigious number of them' that cover the northern and western Ifles of Scotland; hence a view of the country. A profpe&t of the difcoloured, fading woods. After a gentle dufky day, moon-light. Autumnal meteors. Morning ; to which fucceeds a clám, pure, fun-fhiny day, fuch as ufually fhuts up the season. The barveft being gathered in, the country diffolved in joy. The whole concludes with a panegyric on a philofophical country life.

CROWN'D with the fickle and the wheaten sheaf,
While Autumn, nodding o'er the yellow plain,
Comes jovial on, the Doric reed once more,
Well pleas'd, I tune. Whate'er the Wintry froft
Nitrous prepar'd, the various-blossom'd Spring 5
Put in white promise forth, and Summer-funs
Concocted strong, rush boundless now to view,
Full, perfect all, and fwell my glorious theme.
Onflow! the Mufe, ambitious of thy name,
To grace, inspire, and dignify her fong,
Would from the Public Voice thy gentle ear
A while engage. Thy noble cares she knows,

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The patriot virtues that diftend thy thought,
Spread on thy front, and in thy bosom glow,
While listening senates hang upon thy tongue,
Devolving thro' the maze of eloquence
A roll of periods sweeter than her fong.
But fhe, too, pants for public virtue; fhe,
Tho' weak of power, yet strong in ardent will,
Whene'er her country rushes on her heart,
Affumes a bolder note, and fondly tries

To mix the patriot's with the poet's flame.

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When the bright Virgin gives the beauteous days, And Libra weighs in equal scales the year, From heaven's high cope the fierce effulgence shook 25 Of parting Summer, a ferener blue,

With golden light enliven'd, wide invests

The happy world. Attemper'd funs arise,
Sweet-beam'd, and shedding oft' thro' lucid clouds
A pleafing calm, while broad and brown, below, 30
Extenfive harvests hang the heavy head.

Rich, filent, deep, they stand; for not a gale
Rolls its light billows o'er the bending plain:
A calm of plenty! till the ruffled air

Falls from its poife, and gives the breeze to blow. 35
Rent is the fleecy mantle of the sky,

The clouds fly different, and the fudden fun

By fits effulgent gilds th' illumin'd field,
And black, by fits, the fhadows sweep along:
A gaily-checker'd heart-expanding view,

Far as the circling eye can fhoot around,
Unbounded toffing in a flood of corn.

These are thy bleffings, Industry! rough power!
Whom labour ftill attends, and fweat, and pain;
Yet the kind fource of every gentle art,
And all the foft civility of life :

Raifer of human kind! by Nature cast
Naked, and helplefs, out amid the woods
And wilds, to rude inclement elements;
With various feeds of art deep in the mind
Implanted, and profufely pour'd around
Materials infinite, but idle all.

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Still unexerted, in th' unconscious breast
Slept the lethargic powers; Corruption still,
Voracious, fwallowed what the liberal hand
Of Bounty fcatter'd o'er the savage year;
And still the fad barbarian, roving, mix'd
With beafts of prey, or for his acorn-meal
Fought the fierce tusky boar; a shivering wretch!
Aghaft, and comfortless, when the bleak North, 60
With Winter charg'd, let the mix'd tempeft fly,
Hail, rain, and fnow, and bitter-breathing froft:
Then to the shelter of the hut he fled,
And the wild feason, fordid, pin'd away:
For home he had not; home is the refort
Of love, of joy, of peace and plenty, where
Supporting and supported, polish'd friends
And dear relations mingle into bliss.

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But this the rugged favage never felt,
Even defolate in crowds; and thus his days
Roll'd heavy, dark, and unenjoy'd along!
A waste of time! till Industry approach'd,
And rous'd him from his miserable floth;
His faculties unfolded, pointed out
Where lavish Nature the directing hand

Of Art demanded; fhew'd him how to raise
His feeble force by the mechanic powers,
To dig the mineral from the vaulted earth,
On what to turn the piercing rage of fire,
On what the torrent and the gather'd blast;
Gave the tall ancient foreft to his axe; Y

Taught him to chip the wood and hew the ftone,
Till by degrees the finish'd fabric rofe;
Tore from his limbs the blood-polluted fur,

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And wrapt them in the woolly vestment warm, 85
Or bright in gloffy filk and flowing lawn;
With wholesome viands fill'd his table, pour'd
The generous glass around, infpir'd to wake
The life-refining foul of decent Wit;

Nor ftopp'd at barren bare neceffity;
But ftill advancing bolder, led him on

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To pomp, to pleasure, elegance, and grace;

And, breathing high ambition thro' his foul,
Set fcience, wifdom, glory, in his view,

And bade him be the Lord of all below.

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Then gathering men their natural powerscombin'd,

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